An organelle-agnostic image analysis tool

An organelle-agnostic image analysis tool

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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe While state-of-the-art microscopy analysis tools are quickly improving our capability to visualize and understand intracellular dynamics, they still suffer from many limitations. For instance, existing tools are often specialized to specific organelles, limited to electron microscopy organelle data or unable to handle three-dimensional models. In addition, deep learning methods often produce ‘black box’ predictions that can be difficult for scientists to interpret. In a recent work, Austin E. Y. T. Lefebvre and colleagues introduce Nellie (short for organellometer), an automated pipeline that is capable of multiscale and comprehensive organelle-agnostic analysis. Nellie provides spatial and temporal image analysis by extracting and enhancing structural features. Using a modified Frangi filter, Nellie enhances the structural contrast of organelles and allows for local structure-based segmentation. The filter itself is optimized for and can adapt to handle structures across the spectrum of typical organelle sizes. Organelles are divided into smaller subcomponents (branches, nodes, and voxels) using hierarchical segmentation, allowing for feature extraction across different resolutions. These hierarchical subcomponents are then used to produce motion-capture markers that can provide tracking abilities to measure movement across multiple frames. An additional feature of Nellie that is worth highlighting is its design focused on ease of use and computational accessibility: the method itself is packaged in a Napari plugin that uses graphical user interface point-and-click functionality. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $29.99 / 30 days cancel any time Learn more Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles $99.00 per year only $8.25 per issue Learn more Buy this article * Purchase on SpringerLink * Instant access to full article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Research Cross-Journal Editorial Team https://www.nature.com/natcomputsci/research-cross-journal-editorial-team Michelle Badri Authors * Michelle Badri View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Michelle Badri. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Badri, M. An organelle-agnostic image analysis tool. _Nat Comput Sci_ 5, 191 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-025-00785-x Download citation * Published: 24 March 2025 * Issue Date: March 2025 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-025-00785-x SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe While state-of-the-art microscopy analysis tools are quickly improving our capability to visualize and understand intracellular dynamics,


they still suffer from many limitations. For instance, existing tools are often specialized to specific organelles, limited to electron microscopy organelle data or unable to handle


three-dimensional models. In addition, deep learning methods often produce ‘black box’ predictions that can be difficult for scientists to interpret. In a recent work, Austin E. Y. T.


Lefebvre and colleagues introduce Nellie (short for organellometer), an automated pipeline that is capable of multiscale and comprehensive organelle-agnostic analysis. Nellie provides


spatial and temporal image analysis by extracting and enhancing structural features. Using a modified Frangi filter, Nellie enhances the structural contrast of organelles and allows for


local structure-based segmentation. The filter itself is optimized for and can adapt to handle structures across the spectrum of typical organelle sizes. Organelles are divided into smaller


subcomponents (branches, nodes, and voxels) using hierarchical segmentation, allowing for feature extraction across different resolutions. These hierarchical subcomponents are then used to


produce motion-capture markers that can provide tracking abilities to measure movement across multiple frames. An additional feature of Nellie that is worth highlighting is its design


focused on ease of use and computational accessibility: the method itself is packaged in a Napari plugin that uses graphical user interface point-and-click functionality. This is a preview


of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value


online-access subscription $29.99 / 30 days cancel any time Learn more Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles $99.00 per year only $8.25 per issue


Learn more Buy this article * Purchase on SpringerLink * Instant access to full article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL


ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Research Cross-Journal Editorial


Team https://www.nature.com/natcomputsci/research-cross-journal-editorial-team Michelle Badri Authors * Michelle Badri View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 


Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Michelle Badri. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Badri, M. An organelle-agnostic


image analysis tool. _Nat Comput Sci_ 5, 191 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-025-00785-x Download citation * Published: 24 March 2025 * Issue Date: March 2025 * DOI:


https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-025-00785-x SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not


currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative